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Some of the foodservice initiatives that gained momentum during the past year will continue to propel the industry going forward, according to a webinar hosted earlier this month by food and hospitality consulting firm af&co and its affiliated research firm, Carbonate.
Among the food trends they predict will have staying power is one they call “Bring Your Favorite Restaurant Home,” which includes offering retail sales of partially prepared meals and ingredients that allow customer to recreate restaurant-style meals at home.
“It’s about, ‘How do I take what I do as a restaurant, and help people experience it elsewhere?’” said Andrew Freeman, president and founder of af&co, and co-founder of Carbonate.
Examples of such concepts established by restaurants include E&O Trading Co., a marketplace offering staples, grab-and-go meals, and specialty beverages from E&O Kitchen & Bar in San Francisco, and Domo, an offshoot of Boca & Soto in Cincinnati offering meals that can be finished at home in 15 minutes.
Closely related is the “Shop Like a Chef” trend. Many restaurant suppliers began selling the specialty ingredients they purchase for their kitchens as retail items, offering easy access to items not found in the average supermarket. This trend went hand-in-hand with the increase in home cooking that blossomed during the pandemic, said Candace MacDonald, co-founder and managing director of Carbonate
Vendors that have adopted this model “really pivoted on a dime to offer their products direct to consumers, which is really a whole new business model for them,” she said.
Other food trends that are poised to impact the foodservice landscape in 2021 include:
• Virtual Brands Are the New Food Truck: Ghost kitchens paired with delivery also received a boost during the pandemic, as chefs and restauranteurs leveraged these platforms to experiment with new menu items and concepts. Brinker International’s It’s Just Wings brand and chef Jasmine Norton’s The Urban Oyster, a virtual oyster bar operate out of a closed hotel restaurant in Baltimore.
• No You May Not Help Yourself: The elimination of self-service salad bars will lead to the adoption of more automated solutions such as Chowbotics’ Sally, a dispenser of made-to-order salads, and more staff-assisted buffet lines. “In the future, we think you’ll be relying on someone else, whether it’s a robot, or a person, to make your food for you,” said MacDonald.
Among the ingredients that af&co and Carbonate predicted will gain traction on restaurant menus in 2021 are:
• Health-driven items, including monkfruit, a low-calorie, natural sweetener, and sea buckthorn, which is sought after for its flavor as well as its purported nutritional benefits.
• Waste-reducing items that are byproducts of other foods such as okara, a byproduct of making tofu that can be converted into a gluten-free flour; cascara, the husk of the coffee fruit; and whole fruit chocolate.
• Plant-based ingredients including jackfruit used as a substitute for shredded/pulled meat; hearts of palm used as a fish substitute; ad banana blossom, another fish substitute.
When it comes to beverages, many states and local municipalities loosened the rules on alcoholic beverage service and delivery, opening the possibility that consumers in some areas may be able to have beer, wine, and cocktails delivered along with their dinner even after the pandemic ends. Other beverage trends to watch include:
• Making Wine With a Little THC and a bit of THC: Some states may allow the sale of beverages with hemp- or marijuana-derived ingredients such as CBD or THC, a trend Freeman said appears to have a lot of potential. “I think this is just the beginning,” he said.
• Just Calm Down: Another trend impacting the beverage industry is demand for soothing drinks that contain relaxing ingredients such as sleep aids.
• Bar Branded Bottled and Boxed in Kits: Hand-in-hand with delivery some bars and restaurants have ramped up their branded drink offerings, such as the Rusty Bucket chain’s Bloody Mary Kit. “I can tell you this is a great opportunity for you all,” said Freeman. “One of the effects of the pandemic is that we can go national now in ways we could not before.”
• Cocktails for a Crowd: Restaurants and bars can be expected to offers large-sized craft beverages to serve groups.
• High-Quality Coffee Quickly: Coffee brands are finding ways to make their coffee available in single portions for consumers at home who neither want to make a whole pot nor head out to their local cafe.
Other trends include wine clubs that cater to the ecommerce trend, direct-consumer beer sales, and other efforts from craft brewers to grow their off-premises business, and an increased interest in social justice issues such as Black-owned wineries. “[These trends] will inspire you for how you are going to move your businesses along,” said Freeman.
Related: Survival, Sustainability, Uncovering Systemic Bias Among Hospitality Trends; Plant-Based Meat, Vegan Chocolate Among Trends Poised for 2021 Growth.
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